FTS 2001 Implementation Issues (open access)

FTS 2001 Implementation Issues

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The General Services Administration (GSA) awarded FTS2001 contracts to Sprint and MCI Worldcom to provide long distance telecommunications services to federal agencies. The federal government began the sizable and complex effort of switching from the existing FTS 2000 contracts to FTS2001 in June 1999. Several implementation issues have delayed this transition. One of these issues concerns the billing problems experienced by GSA and its contractors. GAO found that the billing problems often arose from changes in contracts and services. According GSA, these issues also arose from the differences between contractors' commercial billing practices and the government's practices. Because these billing problems were not promptly resolved, they had an adverse effect on the transition progress. GSA is taking steps to resolve current billing problems. It is tracking issues as they arise, and it is now trying to resolve 12 issues still outstanding with Sprint and MCI WorldCom, including the problem of commercial billing. In addition, GSA's Office of Inspector General recently began a review of the FTS2001 billing area, which might also identify ways to prevent future billing problems. Another issue that affected the transition progress concerns the databases …
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Magnetically levitated space elevator to low-earth orbit. (open access)

Magnetically levitated space elevator to low-earth orbit.

The properties of currently available NbTi superconductor and carbon-fiber structural materials enable the possibility of constructing a magnetically levitated space elevator from the earth's surface up to an altitude of {approx} 200 km. The magnetic part of the elevator consists of a long loop of current-carrying NbTi, composed of one length that is attached to the earth's surface in an east-west direction and a levitated-arch portion. The critical current density of NbTi is sufficiently high that these conductors will stably levitate in the earth's magnetic field. The magnetic self-field from the loop increases the levitational force and for some geometries assists levitational stability. The 200-km maximum height of the levitated arch is limited by the allowable stresses of the structural material. The loop is cryogenically cooled with helium, and the system utilizes intermediate pumping and cooling stations along both the ground and the levitated portion of the loop, similar to other large terrestrial cryogenic systems. Mechanically suspended from the basic loop is an elevator structure, upon which mass can be moved between the earth's surface and the top of the loop by a linear electric motor or other mechanical or electrical means. At the top of the loop, vehicles may …
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: Hull, J. R. & Mulcahy, T. M.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Building a High Performance Raw Disk Subsystem for Alpha/Linux (open access)

Building a High Performance Raw Disk Subsystem for Alpha/Linux

The Linux kernel version 2.2.19 lacks UNIX-style raw disk support, and its SCSI layer is optimized for small transfer sizes. This report describes kernel patches to add raw disk support and enhance performance in the SCSI layer and QLA2x00 Fibre Channel device driver for large transfer sizes. Benchmarks demonstrate raw disk performance of 191 megabytes/second write, 176 megabytes/second read for one megabyte random I/O on a Compaq ES40 computer system with two QLogic QLA2200F Fibre Channel host bus adapters, each connected to two Ciprico RF7010 arrays on arbitrated loop.
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: Garlick, Jim
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Total-System Performance Assessment for the Yucca Mountain Site (open access)

Total-System Performance Assessment for the Yucca Mountain Site

Yucca Mountain, Nevada, is being studied as a potential site for disposal of high-level radioactive waste. The site has been the subject of an extensive site-characterization effort, and a series of total-system performance assessments (TSPAs) has been conducted over the past decade, with increasing complexity and detail in the models used for the assessments. The general approach for conducting a TSPA is to (1) identify and screen potentially relevant features, events, and processes to develop scenarios, (2) develop models, (3) estimate parameter ranges and uncertainties, (4) perform calculations, and (5) interpret results. Some of these steps can be carried out in parallel, and the procedure generally must be repeated iteratively as knowledge is gained. The TSPA model for Yucca Mountain includes numerous submodels for natural systems, engineered systems, and the interactions between them. Disruptive events are also modeled (primarily igneous activity, but with consideration of other possible disruptive events as well). As implied by step (3), we use a probabilistic approach, in which uncertainties are propagated through the system so that the effects of uncertainties on the final results can be analyzed. The most recent TSPA analyses have been conducted in support of a preliminary site-suitability evaluation. If the site …
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: Wilson, M. L.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Equilibration of Leachants with Basalt Rock for Repository Simulation Tests (open access)

Equilibration of Leachants with Basalt Rock for Repository Simulation Tests

In a nuclear waste repository in basalt, the groundwater will have a low redox potential (Eh) which may affect the leach rate of SRP waste glass. Accurate laboratory simulations of conditions in a basalt reposition must maintain low Eh values throughout the course of the experiment. In this report, important parameters affecting the ability of basalt to maintain appropriate Eh-pH conditions are examined, in particular basalt type and groundwater simulation.
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: Jantzen, Carol M.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Mark 22 Reactivity (open access)

Mark 22 Reactivity

Calculations for reactivity held in control rods have underpredicted the observed Mark 22 reactivity. Reactivity predictions by charge designers have accounted for this by including large biases which change with exposure and reactor region. The purpose of this study was to thoroughly investigate the methods and data used in the reactivity calculations. The goal was to identify errors and improvements and make necessary corrections.
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: Buckner, M. R.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Technique to Determine Billet Core Charge Weight for P/M Fuel Tubes (open access)

A Technique to Determine Billet Core Charge Weight for P/M Fuel Tubes

The core length in an extruded tube depends on the weight of powder in the billet core. In the past, the amount of aluminum powder needed to give a specified core length was determined empirically. This report gives a technique for calculating the weight of aluminum powder for the P/M core. An equation has been derived which can be used to determine the amount of aluminum needed for P/M billet core charge weights. Good agreement was obtained when compared to Mark 22 tube extrusion data. From the calculated charge weight, the elastomeric bag can be designed and made to compact the U3O8-Al core.
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: Peacock, H.B.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Analytical study and tracking simulations of the beam-beam compensation at Tevatron (open access)

Analytical study and tracking simulations of the beam-beam compensation at Tevatron

Head-on and long-range induced tunespread of about 0.025 in the Tevatron collider at Run II (together with the increased strength of the resonances) can significantly deteriorate the {bar p} lifetime and the collider luminosity. It was proposed to employ the so-called Tevatron Electron Lenses (TEL) to compress the beam-beam footprint and eliminate completely the bunch-to-bunch tunespread (PACMAN effect) for small amplitude particles. The first lens has been recently installed and tested [1]. This report presents results of analytical studies and tracking simulations of the linear beam-beam compensation (elimination of the bunch-to-bunch tune variation). Compression of the beam-beam footprint (nonlinear compensation) is discussed in [2].
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: Shatilov, Dmitry; Alexahin, Yuri & Shiltsev, Vladimir
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Proposal for Creating a Pocket of Innovation and Adaptability Within a Bureaucratic Enterprise (open access)

Proposal for Creating a Pocket of Innovation and Adaptability Within a Bureaucratic Enterprise

A conceptual framework is developed that is based on a behavioral model for organizations that rely upon innovation and adaptability for their survival in the market place. The model supports the assertion that change efforts aimed at performance improvement need a systems approach because contributions to an organization's performance cross functional lines and are systemic in nature. The model implies four conclusions for a unit trying to effectuate change within a greater bureaucracy. First, the desired behaviors are currently neither evaluated nor rewarded enough by either the enterprise or the local unit. Second, the model has to be applied to the local unit, treating the unit as a distinct enterprise itself. Third, a misalignment between the unit's new form and that of the rest of the enterprise will invariably be created. Fourth, this misalignment has to be minimized enough by the local unit to avoid the larger enterprise from responding negatively to the change effort. The mode l results in a change approach that constrains localized behavior modification by the need to remain aligned with the overall structure of the complete enterprise. The conceptual framework is used to develop a proposal for effectuating behavioral change within the High-Level Waste (HLW) …
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: Nichols, T. T. & Millet, C. B.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
VLHC/NLC slow ground motion studies in Illinois (open access)

VLHC/NLC slow ground motion studies in Illinois

Since October 1999 we carry out continuous measurements of the slow ground motion on and nearby Fermilab site with a primary goal to provide experimental data for the Very Large Hadron Collider (VLHC) and Next Linear Collider (NLC) projects. Here we give a general description of the experimental set-up, present main results and discuss consequences for the colliders.
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: al., Vladimir Shiltsev et
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Concept of Operation for Waste Transport, Emplacement, and Retrieval (open access)

Concept of Operation for Waste Transport, Emplacement, and Retrieval

The preparation of this technical report has two objectives. The first objective is to discuss the base case concepts of waste transport, emplacement, and retrieval operations and evaluate these operations relative to a lower-temperature repository design. Aspects of the operations involved in waste transport, emplacement and retrieval may be affected by the lower-temperature operating schemes. This report evaluates the effects the lower-temperature alternatives may have on the operational concepts involved in emplacing and retrieving waste. The second objective is to provide backup material for the design description, in a traceable and defensible format, for Section 2 of the Waste Emplacement/Retrieval System Description Document.
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: Raczka, Norman T.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Oxidation of Hydrazine by Nitric Acid (open access)

The Oxidation of Hydrazine by Nitric Acid

Hydrazine nitrate-nitric acid solutions are used in the ion exchange process for separating Pu-238 and Np-237 and have been found to dissolve plutonium metal in a manner advantageous to SRP metal recovery operations. Laboratory tests on the stability of hydrazine in nitric acid solutions were performed to obtain accurate data, and the results of these tests are reported here. These tests provide sufficient information to specify temperature control for hydrazine-nitric acid solutions in plant processes.
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: Karraker, D.G.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Low energy improvements to the Fermilab 400-MeV linear accelerator (open access)

Low energy improvements to the Fermilab 400-MeV linear accelerator

Improvements in the Fermilab operating 400-MeV linear accelerator injector are required to achieve the beam intensity and emittance requirement of the Proton Driver design study [5]. It has been determined that these requirements can be achieved by replacing the components in the Linac below 10 MeV. An improved H{sup {minus}} ion source with an electrostatic transport to a two-section Radio-Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) accelerator, with the RFQ sections separated by a magnetic five-dimensional phase-space imaging system as used in an earlier Fermilab/SAIC PET Project, and a new 10-MeV drift-tube linac cavity have been studied. It appears possible that an H{sup {minus}} intensity of 4.5 x 10{sup 13} ions per pulse with an improvement in beam emittance from the present system can be achieved with the proposed changes.
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: al., Don E. Young et
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Beam-beam interactions at the Tevatron in Run IIa (open access)

Beam-beam interactions at the Tevatron in Run IIa

The Tevatron in Run IIa will operate with three trains of twelve bunches each. The impact of the long-range interactions on beam stability will be more significant compared to Run I. We study these beam-beam interactions (head-on and long-range) with particle tracking using two different codes. The model includes machine nonlinearities such as the field errors of the Interaction Region quadrupoles and the chromaticity sextupoles. Tune footprints and dynamic apertures are calculated for different bunches in a train.
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: Sen, Tanaji; Gelfand, Norman & Xiao, Meiqin
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Benefits of Qualitative Simulation for Managing Fluctuating Staffing Needs (open access)

Benefits of Qualitative Simulation for Managing Fluctuating Staffing Needs

Management of the High Level Waste Program Office at the Idaho National Environmental and Engineering Laboratory has projected oscillating future employment levels. A simple computer model was created to help convince management that qualitative modeling of ''soft'' variables can provide appreciable insight into the consequences and performance of alternative staffing policies. Advocacy of the model underlying the simulation or a particular strategy did not motivate the study, but rather a desire to instill enthusiasm and elicit new and improved conceptual models from management. Six qualitative and three quantitative generic insights to managing staffing levels are gained from the simulations. These insights in their generic form should be familiar to those knowledgeable of system dynamics or computer/instrument process control. Their potential usefulness to developing staffing strategies is stressed. The two primary overarching assertions that flow from the simulation results are: (1) the presence of multiple feedbacks, time delays, and continuous flows introduce instability into a personnel system that complicates the management of staffing levels. Many times ''soft'' variables, such as morale, productivity, and efficiency are the sources of such influences; and (2) such influences can be successfully modeled. In the case of the simple model used in these simulations, for example, …
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: Nichols, T. T.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Relative Release Rates of Nitrate, Tc, Cs and Sr from Saltstone (open access)

Relative Release Rates of Nitrate, Tc, Cs and Sr from Saltstone

The relative release rates of nitrate, cesium, strontium, and technetium have been measured from saltstone and soilcrete (salt-stone containing soil) under saturated conditions. These are the first measurement of radionuclide release rates from saltstone, and confirm the assumptions used earlier in mathematical modeling. Both saltstone and saltcrete have comparable leach rates for nitrate and pertechnetate anions. Cesium and strontium are more strongly held in both materials, but show differences between the two matrices. These data fully support the assumption that no species leaches more rapidly than nitrate.
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: Oblath, S. B.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Low-budget muon source (open access)

Low-budget muon source

Generation of muon beams with protons on a current-carrying target followed by a lithium lens and a quadrupole decay channel is considered. A 8 GeV proton beam from the Fermilab Booster is used to provide a muon beam for the MUCOOL experiment for ionization cooling demonstration. The proposed scheme can also be used to create muon beams with a fraction of a 1 GeV proton beam of the Spallation Neutron Source. Monte Carlo simulations of the entire system are performed. For both cases optimization of the target and matching lithium lens is done. It is shown that such a set followed by an inexpensive decay channel based on quadrupole magnets with and without RF cavities provides a rather intense bunched muon beam.
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: Balbekov, Valeri I. & Mokhov, Nikolai V.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Strontium Sorption onto SRP Soils (open access)

Strontium Sorption onto SRP Soils

This report discusses the effect of water and soil quality variables on the sorption of strontium onto SRP soils. The variables cover the range of conditions observed in the low-level waste burial ground.
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: Hoeffner, S.L.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Field Operations Program - Neighborhood Electric Vehicle Fleet Use (open access)

Field Operations Program - Neighborhood Electric Vehicle Fleet Use

This report summarizes a study of 15 automotive fleets that operate neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs) in the United States. The information was obtained to help Field Operations Program personnel understand how NEVs are being used, how many miles they are being driven, and if they are being used to replace other types of fleet vehicles or as additions to fleets. (The Field Operations Program is a U.S. Department of Energy Program within the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Transportation Technologies). The NEVs contribution to petroleum avoidance and cleaner air can be estimated based on the miles driven and by assuming gasoline use and air emissions values for the vehicles being replaced. Gasoline and emissions data for a Honda Civic are used as the Civic has the best fuel use for a gasoline-powered vehicle and very clean emissions. Based on these conservation assumptions, the 348 NEVs are being driven a total of about 1.2 million miles per year. This equates to an average of 3,409 miles per NEV annually or 9 miles per day. It is estimated that 29,195 gallons of petroleum use is avoided annually by the 348 NEVs. This equates to 87 gallons of petroleum use …
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: Francfort, J. E. & Carroll, M. R.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
GEANT4 simulation and theoretical studies of a helical cooling channel (open access)

GEANT4 simulation and theoretical studies of a helical cooling channel

We present a conceptual design and detailed GEANT4 simulation of a helical ionization cooling channel proposed by Ya. Derbenev, which is able to cool in 3 dimensions (3-D). The lattice of the channel consists of a long solenoid (B=5 T, L=72 m, R=70 cm) and a transverse dipole magnetic field which rotates with a period of 1.8 m and an amplitude of 0.3 T. The cooling is achieved using lithium hydride wedge absorbers. Re-acceleration is performed by 201.25 MHz RF cavities which provide a 6.2 MeV per cooling cell. The parameters of the muon beam at the end of the channel are: transmission 85%, transverse and longitudinal emittances 0.6 cm and 2 cm, respectively.
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: al., Valeri Balbekov et
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Distribution of absorbed doses in the materials irradiated by ''RHODOTRON'' electron accelerator: Experiment and Monte Carlo simulations (open access)

Distribution of absorbed doses in the materials irradiated by ''RHODOTRON'' electron accelerator: Experiment and Monte Carlo simulations

This paper describes the experimental setup and presents studies of absorbed doses in different metals and dielectrics along with corresponding Monte Carlo energy deposition simulations. Experiments were conducted using a 5 MeV electron accelerator. We used several Monte Carlo code systems, namely MARS, MCNP, and GEANT to simulate the absorbed doses under the same conditions as in experiment. We compare calculated and measured high and low absorbed doses (from few kGy to hundreds kGy) and discuss the applicability of these computer codes for applied accelerator dosimetry.
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: al., Oleg E. Krivosheev et
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Environmental impacts of options for disposal of depleted uranium tetrafluoride (UF{sub 4}). (open access)

Environmental impacts of options for disposal of depleted uranium tetrafluoride (UF{sub 4}).

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) evaluated options for managing its depleted uranium hexafluoride (UF{sub 6}) inventory in the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for the Long-Term Management and Use of Depleted Uranium Hexafluoride (PEIS) of April 1999. Along with the impacts from other management options, the PEIS discussed the environmental impacts from the disposal of depleted uranium oxide, which could result from the chemical conversion of depleted UF{sub 6}. It has been suggested that the depleted UF{sub 6} could also be converted to uranium tetrafluoride (UF{sub 4}) and disposed of. This report considers the potential environmental impacts from the disposal of DOE's depleted UF{sub 6} inventory after its conversion to UF{sub 4}. The impacts were evaluated for the same three disposal facility options that were considered in the PEIS for uranium oxide: shallow earthen structures, belowground vaults, and mines. They were evaluated for a dry environmental setting representative of the western United States. To facilitate comparisons and future decision making, the depleted UF{sub 4} disposal analyses performed and the results presented in this report are at the same level of detail as that in the PEIS.
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: Monette, F. A.; Allison, T.; Avci, H. I.; Biwer, B. M.; Butler, J. P.; Chang, Y. S. et al.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
ITS Technologies in Military Wheeled Tactical Vehicles: Status Quo and the Future (open access)

ITS Technologies in Military Wheeled Tactical Vehicles: Status Quo and the Future

The U.S. Army operates and maintains the largest trucking fleet in the United States. Its fleet consists of over 246,000 trucks, and it is responsible for buying and developing trucks for all branches of the armed forces. The Army's tactical wheeled vehicle fleet is the logistical backbone of the Army, and annually, the fleet logs about 823 million miles. The fleet consists of a number of types of vehicles. They include eight different families of trucks from the High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicles to M900 series line haul tractors and special bodies. The average age of all the trucks within the Army fleet is 15 years, and very few have more than traditional driving instrumentation on-board. Over the past decade, the Department of Transportation's (DOT's) Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Program has conducted research and deployment activities in a number of areas including in-vehicle systems, communication and telematics technologies. Many current model passenger vehicles have demonstrated the assimilation of these technologies to enhance safety and trip quality. Commercial vehicles are also demonstrating many new electronic devices that are assisting in making them safer and more efficient. Moreover, a plethora of new technologies are about to be introduced to drivers that promise …
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: Knee, H.E.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Truck Roll Stability Data Collection and Analysis (open access)

Truck Roll Stability Data Collection and Analysis

The principal objective of this project was to collect and analyze vehicle and highway data that are relevant to the problem of truck rollover crashes, and in particular to the subset of rollover crashes that are caused by the driver error of entering a curve at a speed too great to allow safe completion of the turn. The data are of two sorts--vehicle dynamic performance data, and highway geometry data as revealed by vehicle behavior in normal driving. Vehicle dynamic performance data are relevant because the roll stability of a tractor trailer depends both on inherent physical characteristics of the vehicle and on the weight and distribution of the particular cargo that is being carried. Highway geometric data are relevant because the set of crashes of primary interest to this study are caused by lateral acceleration demand in a curve that exceeds the instantaneous roll stability of the vehicle. An analysis of data quality requires an evaluation of the equipment used to collect the data because the reliability and accuracy of both the equipment and the data could profoundly affect the safety of the driver and other highway users. Therefore, a concomitant objective was an evaluation of the performance of …
Date: July 2, 2001
Creator: Stevens, S. S.; Chin, S. M.; Hake, K. A.; Hwang, H. L.; Rollow, J. P. & Truett, L. F.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library